BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen have been married for 30 years. They are an example of how opposites do attract and can attract so much they enjoy not only being wed but also getting to work together. The eight-episode second season of Danson’s Netflix series, “A Man on the Inside,” is now available with Steenburgen joining the cast.
Danson, who describes himself as being a laid-back kind of person who never breaks up on set, was thrilled to have his Oscar-winning wife, who is more adventurous and easier to make giggle, in the show.
“To be able to wake up and be on the same page and get to go work together doing great material. And we love being actors. We really take it seriously and delight in it. And so, it was the best,” Danson says.
Steenburgen has a long career of working in TV and on films but none of her past work was as enjoyable as “A Man on the Inside.” Danson had a lot to do with that evaluation of his co-star.
The first season of “A Man on the Inside” followed a retired man, Charles Nieuwendyk (Danson), who gets a new lease on life when he answers an advertisement placed by a private detective. He becomes a mole in a secret investigation of the Pacific View Retirement Residence in San Francisco.
There had to be a complete change of scenery as Danson’s character was revealed to be the man undercover. The challenge was to keep the format but make the new episodes a logical transition.
Series creator Michael Schur says, “You can’t tell the same story twice for a number of reasons. Season one was about processing loss and grief, and it was about a guy whose life was getting a little smaller, who took a risk and pushed outward and made his life a little bigger.
“Once he’s on the other side of that, the question from a writing standpoint becomes what’s the next step for him? He was a professor in his life, and so it made sense. And it also allowed us to sort of celebrate the concept of the small college, which is a thing I truly love.”
Eager to take on another big undercover case, Charles gets his chance when a mysterious blackmailer targets Wheeler College president Jack Berenger (Max Greenfield), who enlists Charles to go undercover as a professor. Charles finds no shortage of possible suspects, but his attention gets diverted by free-spirited music teacher Mona (Steenburgen), whose zest for life awakens feelings he thought he’d buried after the passing of his wife.
Steenburgen was an unofficial part of the show from the start as she and Danson decided to watch the documentary “The Mole Agent” at the suggestion of friends. The Oscar-nominated film deals with a private investigator who hires an elderly man to go undercover in a nursing home in Chile.
“It was already like this elevated thing in my mind. But we laughed, we cried. It was the sweetest, gentlest, the star of it. And it was just this amazing 80-year-old man,” Danson says. “It was just something that you thought, ‘Oh, wow, yes, I don’t know how you’re going to make it a series, but yes, I want to be part of it immediately.’”
The series reunites 76-year-old Danson with executive producer Schur. They last worked together during the four-season run of the NBC comedy “The Good Place” that ended in 2020. Danson jokes he would often drop by Schur’s office to see what new projects were in the works.
Schur points out this is not the first show where he has cast Danson and Steenburgen. The final episode of “The Good Place” featured Danson’s character on Earth and decided to get a teacher to teach him how to play the guitar. Steenburgen played that teacher.
Danson has been a working actor for a half century, rolling up credits from the long running “Cheers” to films such as “Made in America,” “Three Men and a Baby,” “Saving Private Ryan” and “Just Between Friends.” His philosophy has been to never shut down because that’s when life ends.
Projects such as “The Man Inside” allow him to keep acting and feel like he is still contributing to the entertainment world. Comparing work in comedy when he was younger, Danson points out that good writing is timeless. He doesn’t have an interest in doing the kind of multiple jokes per page that he did earlier in his career. His interest now is finding humor in exploring the human truth.
The cast of “A Man on the Inside” also includes Mary Elizabeth Ellis, Lilah Richcreek Estrada, Stephanie Beatriz, Gary Cole, Michaela Conlin, Lisa Gilroy, Max Greenfield, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Madison Hu, Sam Huntington, Jason Mantzoukas, Constance Marie and Linda Park.
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